[News] European Patent Office to Demonstrate Against European Patent Office - Linux

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European patent examiners need to level with us, not hide behind dubious stats
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| The Stop Software Patents website carries a copy of a press release put out
| by SUEPO ...

[News] European Patent Office to Demonstrate Against European Patent Office

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European patent examiners need to level with us, not hide behind dubious stats

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| The Stop Software Patents website carries a copy of a press release put out
| by SUEPO – the union representing European Patent Office examiners – to
| coincide with the one day strike of EPO staff and a protest to be held in
| Brussels, both of which are scheduled for this Thursday, 18th September.
|
| According to this release: “The confidence of the workforce in the EPO
| President, Alison Brimelow, and her Vice-Presidents is very low. According to
| internal staff survey conducted in June 2008, only 6% of the workforce have
| confidence in the management qualities of this body. And only 9% of the
| patent examiners believe that Brimelow and the Vice-Presidents actively
| promote patent quality.”
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| The international Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) has
| called on the staff of the office to strike on Thursday 18th of September,
| and to demonstrate in Brussels for a reform of its supervisory board. The
| strike and demonstration are timed to coincide with meeting in the Belgian
| capital of the executive of the patent office, under its president Alison
| Brimelow, to seek approaches to a "strategic renovation". The employee
| representatives expect around 300 staff members from the patent offices in
| Munich, Berlin, The Hague and Vienna to attend the protest rally.
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| According to an EPO internal staff survey of June 2008, only 9% of the EPO
| examiners believes that "Brimelow and the Vice-Presidents actively promote
| patent quality". Brimelow is progressing, since Alain Pompidou, the former
| President, had a trust of only 7%.
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| Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede
| the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent
| thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued
| for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure
| to encourage innovation, he said.
|
| Another problem is that the social returns from innovation do not accord with
| the private returns associated with the patent system, Stiglitz said. The
| marginal benefit from innovation is that an idea may become available sooner
| than it might have. But the person who secures the patent on it wins a
| long-term monopoly, creating a gap between private and social returns.
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